Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Josh Geetter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Josh, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

The defining moment presents every time I engage with a patient, customer, colleague, employee, or one of our clinic & shop mascots.

“Sounds cheeky,” you say?

Indeed, oft times defining moments arise with lightness of being, mirth & lovingly shooing a kitten from the treatment room, but I assure you, they define and redefine the practice of medicine and wellness for all of us interacting at Medicine Ranch, Telluride.

Does not first contact with an individual who is suffering set the stage for the therapeutic relationship?

Do authenticity, transparency, & some vulnerable humanity grounded by competence and professionalism define a safe and genuine place for a patient to engage with the same from within them?

What about when “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” or “what fresh hell is this?“ descend upon the practitioner, the clinic or the staff, or when world, events or catastrophe rock the zeitgeist of us all? Can a clinic roll with “what is“ transforming difficulties we all face into an honest defining space where shared health can foment?

What healing occurs when a practitioner shows up and is fully present for clinic despite going through death or divorce?

What about the torrent of everyday miracles which flood a clinic, defining and re-defining moments through “just another Tuesday?” How does that transpose into the weeks, months, years, and decades of medical practice and it’s community outreach?

“Be here now?“ Absolutely. Be less than 108% present occasionally in our human imperfections? Yep. Mistakes? Embarrassing moments? These are sll defining moments.

The thing about a real medical practice is the constant flow of defining moments;; ineffable, indescribable,, inexhaustible, mysterious, miraculous, marvelous, masterful, messy, mortifying, magical, modest & majestic moments.

To pull this in a little bit, my father, , chief of surgery at Na Trang Field Hospital, Vietnam, 1967 – 1968, who went on to a career which could be described as above,, he had a wonderful professor by the name of Dr Alan Callow from Tufts university school of medicine in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1960s.. dr. Callow taught the “three A’s to medical practice.“ A generation later, my dad then taught them to me.

The first is that one must be “Apt.“ One must be competent, have real chops, skills, and remarkable abilities, which seat the practice and our evident to patients, colleagues and the community.

The second is that one must be “affable,“ Which goes far deeper than the cocktail party meaning of engaging and disarming. This is to say, the true medical practitioner must be humane and human, relatable, somewhat transparent, and real while also having a great bedside manner or a healing touch or a kind smile. One must be a worthy vessel for patient and colleagues and the community to put their faith in.

The third is that one must be “Available .“ This is to say that one must hang a shingle born from education and the rigours of achieving licensure. One must show up with aptitude and an affable nature. Availability defines the practice every time one answers the phone, opens the door, responds to an email or shows up when a patient or employee or themselves are in crisis

Asking my father to teach me the “three A’s” was a defining moment. Practicing the 3 A’s redefines constantly my the practice of medicine.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

“I’m not aware of too many things. I know what I know, if you know what I mean. Do ya?“ Edie Brickell.

I’ve served the Telluride Colorado community and in my own way humanity with natural medicine for a quarter century, Medicine Ranch is known locally to internationally as a sincere and wholehearted bastion of natural wellness anchored by classical Chinese medicine; acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, bodywork, tai chi, chi gong, gong fu, Dao-ish, Budd-ish and cross-cultural archetypes of health and wellness.

The thing is that I practice the basics; solidv“nuts and bolts” acupuncture and oriental medicine strsight from the text books and the classics. Everything I say or do has a citation from teachings & lineages of natural medicine. I consider myself to do the simple and basic stuff day by week, by month for years and decades.

In that I practice the basics in a “ by the book” manner while Medicine Ranch and my medical practice have earned a remarkable reputation…this gives me no pleasure!

Frankly, I wish that solid, efficacious, inexpensive, approachable, natural medicine were available on every street corner. I don’t want to be considered markable. This highlights how rare it is to find solid basics in a lot of professions. There’s no lack of work. The day I will be out of business will be one fine day. It will be the day that there’s no more suffering. Until that day there’s enough work to kill me every day. I wish to be surrounded by colleagues everywhere on every street corner because I can’t handle the workload. It literally frightens me to feel the pressure of so much suffering in the world as people turn to me as if I have something rare to offer.

I treat captains of industry and superstars and governmental leaders and transient farm workers and indigent single mothers and people marginalized by and perhaps cast off from society.

I treat them all equally. I treat all comers like royalty. I do my best to receive all with the same level if care, concern, competence, and compassion.

So, I just keep doing the simple stuff regardless of trials and tribulations of running a small, independent medical office. The work, the career and the satisfaction at the end of the day has not ended. I don’t see it ending until “one fine day.“

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Running a small independent medical practice for a quarter-century is in itself a testament to resilience. However, the past half decade exemplifies particular resilience along the journey.

Just before Covid hit, I went through divorce and neck cancer. There’s a certain kind of resilience which arises when one is deeply lacerated, wounded and suffering, while every day stepping in to help others with their wounding and suffering. This kind of resilience begins when personal reserves seem exhausted, yet you show up, breathe, practice, try to get some rest and do it again. Then, something happens where in the commiseration, the testifying, the witnessing and sharing of the human condition while offering blessings to others, takes on a potency of its own. It becomes larger than the personal. One starts to derive empowerment in the midst of agony, both greater than oneself. It’s not a place I wish to visit often, but I have no regrets for having gone through this terrain. Great empowerment is found there.

How did I make it through deaths and divorce, financial disaster, attacks and duress through Covid and the subsequent years? Well, I can tell you how I did it but frankly “I don’t know how I did it.”

Post Covid my clinic and shop suffered three floods from upstairs neighbors in three years. The insurance remuneration was paltry. The integrity of those responsible was worse. Then insult was added to injury with attacks from actual enemies asserting mundane, worldly, low vibe and ugly realities..

One of the main things I was forced to learn was that no matter what happens in this world, I have self determination as to deciding what to let under my skin and into my heartbeat, my digestion, my sleep cycle and my inner sanctuary. The resilience of self determination is a rare and precious thing. The strength and health of learning how to practice personal sovereignty and how to walk through the valley of darkness fearing no evil forges great resilience.
Well, you can have fear, but it’s important that fear not have you.

Learning how to practice in this way brings on a kind of resilience makes for one who can say “ I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Bob Dylan.

Learning that there’s what happens in life and then there’s how I respond to it ; Learning that injury and insult may be given. The same insult and injury does not have to be taken. have a choice as to whether we take it.

So I can get mugged and may lose my wallet and get a blackeye, but it’s my choice if I rise to the bait of the haters and drank the poison. I have the choice of. saying to my higher self “forgive them, dude, they know not what they do.“ JC The Christ example is just a very good one. I’m not going parochial here. I’m using that archetype.

This type of resilience can see me through the rest of my life and benefit world around me.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Well,

This is a good question.

I believe I would choose the same trajectory of right livelihood and service. I just believe that there are many ways to do this.

I often think of the corn chip company “Have a chip.“ These are hippie corn chips that I’ve seen for over 40 years in health food stores all over the country. It’s a small bag of chips. It’s not terribly cheap, but it’s not terribly expensive. It comes in a cellophane bag, which is biodegradable. On the label, it says “ingredients, Corn, oil, salt, lime, love.“ The address on the bag is somewhere in Southern California, on the ocean I believe perhaps Malibu.

I look at this business model of doing something very simple, just making chips with love. I think of, or rather imagine that perhaps this is a family of maybe hippie surfers from the 60s, who madecorn chips with love. I imagine that because their chips are in almost every health food store around the country and have been for almost a half a century that these people have put love and goodness into the world while likely making a fortune! I imagine them perhaps raising a family and providing inheritance for their children and their recipe was simple: corn, salt, oil, lime, and love.

Then I look at my complex career with its lofty ideas and multifaceted business model. My accountant tells me that I have a very complex business model, which is really of enterprise level, but I’m really just one guy. I provide goods and services. I do herbal production and wild crafting. I grow gardens and sell products. My medical practice has five main branches. I practice all of them. I have a brick and mortar shop and clinic. I publish and teach and reinvest and it’s all absurdly complex.

Maybe next lifetime or if I had it all to do over again I would just do something simple that put love and goodness into the world without so much b complexity.

Then again, I’d also like to be a rockstar!

Contact Info:

• Website: Medicineranch.com
• Facebook: Medicne Ranch

Image Credits
Joshua Geetter, Laura Galen